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Tigers top Blue Comets

ASHEBORO — There’s no substitute for experience and it was obvious the Randleman High School varsity baseball team has plenty of it Wednesday.

The Tigers did the majority of the damage with two outs in an 8-1 non-conference win over Randolph County foe Asheboro at McCrary Park.

“We’ve been streaky,” Randleman coach Shawn Barker said. “Sometimes, we’ll do it with one out, sometimes with two. Sometimes we’ll come out flat. Tonight, we swung the bats well. It’s a confidence boost for us.”

On the mound, Gauge Gantt pitched five innings — his longest outing thus far — for the win, allowing one run on three hits with two strikeouts and one walk.

“He’d only thrown one or two innings coming into this game,” Barker said. “I didn’t want to pull him out because he was throwing strikes.”

That, and the Tigers (9-2) needed to save arms with a Piedmont Athletic Conference game tonight at Wheatmore.

Randleman scored five runs in the first inning with two outs as Tyler Walls, who went 4-for-5, led off with a double and took third on Cody Trogdon’s one-out groundout to second. Cody Millikan was hit by a pitch and Caleb Webster’s infield single scored Walls. Tanner Routh drew a walk to load the bases for Gantt, who sent a bases-clearing double to the left-center wall. He then scored on Logan Hussey’s single to left-center for a 5-0 Tigers’ lead.

Asheboro answered in the bottom of the second. Cameron Welch led off with a single to shallow center, reached second on an error and took third on Jared Thompson’s groundout to the catcher. He reached home as Gabriel Luna flew out to center.

Still, that was all for the Blue Comets for the rest of the game. Asheboro stranded six baserunners for the game — two of which were on third.

Randleman, meanwhile, tacked on another run on Millikan’s one-out RBI single to left in the top of the fourth and scored two more in the fifth — with two outs — on back-to-back hits by Walls and Easton Welch.

“We need to figure out a way to close the inning,” said Blue Comets coach Tim Murray, whose team doesn’t play until Tuesday in the Copperhead Classic. “Randleman has an experienced pitching staff. Gantt did a good job mixing his pitches. We’re still young and sometimes we’re a little too loose.”

Walls finished with a double, a triple, two runs scored, an RBI and a stolen base, while Welch went 2-for-5 with an RBI. Gantt notched a double and three RBIs, and Dekota Shaw had a run scored and a stolen base. Millikan chipped in a hit, a run scored and two RBIs.

Grant Cole got the start for Asheboro (5-5) and took the loss, giving up six runs on six hits with two strikeouts and three walks in two innings. Jared Thompson pitched 1 2/3 innings of relief and Nick Hannon finished the game.